Log in/Register

Please log in or register to continue. Registration is free and requires only your email address.

Log in

Register

Emailrequired

PasswordrequiredRemember me?

Please enter your email address and click on the reset-password button. You'll receive an email shortly with a link to create a new password. If you have trouble finding this email, please check your spam folder.

@Frances Kissling «From a medical, not religious view, one does not wait till such a patient is on death's door to act, but acts early enough to prevent disaster»
Precisely: there were no grounds for acting medically - in the real situation, in the present case - from a technical point of view... But it was a "good" case for boosting the ideological agenda that human nature is just a stamp from society, not something we all are.

Two comments about your last three paragraphs: (1) Thomas Aquinas did not believe that there were any humans who lacked a rational nature. Humans are necessarily (and essentially) rational animals. His position was that, prior to the creation of the human rational soul several weeks after conception, there is no human being there. Instead, there was some kind of other animal present, an animal which ceased to exist when God created the human being, which He does by creating a human rational soul and placing it into matter. (2) Almost no natural law theorists accept Aquinas' account anyway since it was based on arguments from a more Aristotelian milieu. All of this is to say that there is no bifurcation of human beings and their rational natures which would allow for what is suggested at the end of this essay, at least for Thomists and related natural law theorists.

@Carlos Santos, Singer's argument still being valid even in the case you mention. Just the fact that a fetus had anencephaly is enough to sustain that the Catholic church shouldn't reject the killing of this being without a "rational nature" (according their own moral theory).

Reading the medical bulletins, we can see that she was never in danger because of her pregnancy, neither there was any evidence of renal insufficiency throughout the gestation ... Lupus, by itself, is not a contraindication to pregnancy. If you want to question the Catholic Church, please do so in your own arguments, not on someone´s else scientific grounds. Thank you.

@Carlos Santos. Each case is different and diagnosing at a distance risky. Her doctors felt she was in danger and appealed to the Supreme Court for permission to perform an abortion early enough to prevent possible loss of life or long lasting complications. Anibal Faundes, a leading expert from the International Federation of Gynecologists wrote of Beatriz: she "has the misfortune of suffering systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus), an autoimmune disease. Pregnancy often exacerbates lupus, with adverse effects on kidney function, potentially leading to accelerated progression to end-stage renal disease. In addition, pregnancies in women with lupus are at high risk for spontaneous abortion and premature delivery, intrauterine growth retardation, and a maternal complication called superimposed pre-eclampsia.

These were the exact conditions Beatriz faced in her first pregnancy two years ago when she experienced complications of hypertension so severe she had to undergo a cesarean section at 32 weeks, and was then forced to spend several days in intensive care. Several complications arose post-partum in her premature baby, a son, but he survived in good condition and was back with his mother after 32 days under neonatal care. Beatriz, however, was not as lucky, and as result of the pregnancy she was left with chronic hypertension and a kidney dysfunction called lupus nephritis." http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/05/31/is-the-life-and-health-of-a-young-rural-woman-of-any-value-in-el-salvador/

From a medical, not religious view, one does not wait till such a patient is on death's door to act, but acts early enough to prevent disaster. A doctor acts on science, not religious belief.

See also:

In the first year of his presidency, Donald Trump has consistently sold out the blue-collar, socially conservative whites who brought him to power, while pursuing policies to enrich his fellow plutocrats.

Sooner or later, Trump's core supporters will wake up to this fact, so it is worth asking how far he might go to keep them on his side.

A Saudi prince has been revealed to be the buyer of Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi," for which he spent $450.3 million. Had he given the money to the poor, as the subject of the painting instructed another rich man, he could have restored eyesight to nine million people, or enabled 13 million families to grow 50% more food.

While many people believe that technological progress and job destruction are accelerating dramatically, there is no evidence of either trend. In reality, total factor productivity, the best summary measure of the pace of technical change, has been stagnating since 2005 in the US and across the advanced-country world.

The Bollywood film Padmavati has inspired heated debate, hysterical threats of violence, and a ban in four states governed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party – all before its release. The tolerance that once accompanied India’s remarkable diversity is wearing thin these days.

The Hungarian government has released the results of its "national consultation" on what it calls the "Soros Plan" to flood the country with Muslim migrants and refugees. But no such plan exists, only a taxpayer-funded propaganda campaign to help a corrupt administration deflect attention from its failure to fulfill Hungarians’ aspirations.

French President Emmanuel Macron wants European leaders to appoint a eurozone finance minister as a way to ensure the single currency's long-term viability. But would it work, and, more fundamentally, is it necessary?

The US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel comes in defiance of overwhelming global opposition. The message is clear: the Trump administration is determined to dictate the Israeli version of peace with the Palestinians, rather than to mediate an equitable agreement between the two sides.